Venustiano Carranza

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Venustiano Carranza (disambiguation) .

Venustiano Carranza

Venustiano Carranza (born December 29, 1859 in Cuatro Ciénegas , Coahuila , † May 21, 1920 in Tlaxcalantongo , Puebla ) was a Mexican revolutionary, politician and President of Mexico from 1914 to 1920 .

Life

In 1908, Carranza closed Francisco Ignacio Madero in to Porfirio Díaz overthrow. Madero , who had become president during the Mexican Revolution , appointed Venustiano Carranza governor of his home state in 1911 . When Madero fell victim to a military coup in 1913 , from which the commander-in-chief of the army , Victoriano Huerta , emerged as the new and de facto dictatorial ruler, a coalition of almost all revolutionary forces opposed him. As their political leader now Carranza emerged as governor of Coahuila. He derived his claim to leadership from the fact that within the anti-Huerta opposition, as the governor-elect, he was the highest representative of the constitutional order.

Carranza had the putsch of the usurper Huerta condemned by the parliament of "his" state and called himself in the " Plan of Guadalupe " of March 26, 1913 to the primer jefe of the "constitutionalist", i.e. H. the armed forces loyal to the Constitution. At the same time, in this manifesto to the nation of Huerta, the right to the presidency was denied. Militarily, however, Carranza in Coahuila soon had to give way to the superior strength of the federal army. Nevertheless, he managed to consolidate his authority as the top leader of the anti-Huerta movement in the months that followed.

The anti-Huerta coalition, which was politically very heterogeneous from the start, broke up again immediately after its overthrow in July 1914. The divergent ideas of Carranzas, who claimed “executive power” in Mexico after the victory over Huerta, Emiliano Zapatas and Francisco Villas , who both saw themselves as representatives of the interests of the rural lower classes, although only Zapata really a comprehensive agrarian and land reform for his clientele , while Villas’s entire political program remained rather vague, ultimately could not be agreed. After Villa refused to take part in the convention of governors and generals in Mexico City called by Carranza for the beginning of October 1914 and negotiations on the entry of the Zapatistas into the Carranzas camp had also failed, there was an armed conflict between Villa and Zapata on the one hand and Carranza on the other hand.

To Carranza's surprise, however, the convention he had convened was not prepared to grant him sole “executive power”. He adjourned to resume his meetings in Aguascalientes . There the convention turned completely against Carranza, confirmed Villa in his position as commander of the revolutionary army he commanded and appointed a provisional president. For his part, Carranza has now declared the Convention's agreements to be invalid and announced that he would continue to function as the highest executive body in Mexico. In the civil war that was now beginning again, this time fought between “conventionists” and “constitutionalists”, Carranza initially turned against Villa, the strongest of his opponents, and with the help of Álvaro Obregón , a rancher who had acquired his considerable military skills self-taught , in defeat a series of bloody battles, including those of Celaya and León , and eliminate them as competitors for power in the state. In 1917 Carranza was officially elected president. On his instructions, Zapata was also ambushed and murdered in 1919.

During Carranza's tenure, there were a number of conflicts with foreign investors, particularly those from the United States, whose agricultural holdings in Mexico were to be restricted and whose oil wells were to be nationalized. In the end, Carranza did not keep his promises of reform. In 1920 Carranza's plan to put up a candidate for the presidential election he liked failed. There was a conspiracy (the "Plan of Agua Prieta ") of several colonels and generals in the north of the country under the leadership of Álvaro Obregón , who wanted to run himself. Carranza had to flee Mexico City with his cabinet, but was killed by Rodolfo Herrero's troops on the morning of May 21, 1920 while on the run in Tlaxcalantongo in the state of Puebla . He was buried in the "Panteón Civil de Dolores" cemetery in Mexico City and in 1942 his remains were transferred to the Monument to the Revolution.

family

Venustino Carranza had seven children from two marriages and came from a very large family himself. He had no fewer than 14 siblings. His brother Jesús (1863-1915) took part in the Mexican Revolution with the rank of general. One of his nephews, Sebastián , was a colonel in the revolutionary armed forces.

Trivia

One of 16 districts ( delegaciones ) of the Mexican capital Mexico City is named after him .

See also

• List of presidents of Mexico
• History of Mexico

Web links

Commons : Venustiano Carranza  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Venustiano Carranza in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Newspaper article about Venustiano Carranza in the press kit of the 20th century of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Venustiano Carranza. January 3, 2017, accessed February 26, 2020 (Spanish).